Abraham Shakespeare hit the numbers big time in 2007, walking away with a cool $30 million dollar jackpot. Shakespeare made headlines in the Tampa Bay area when a friend accused him of stealing the winning lottery ticket, but the matter was settled in court when a judge ruled that Shakespeare could keep his millions.

Now… 3 years later. The multi-millionaire has gone missing and foul play is suspected.Shakespeare’s mother said after her son won the jackpot, people came out of the woodwork looking for a handout.

“I couldn’t even talk with him like 10 minutes before his phone was ringing,” Elizabeth Walker said. “By the time he’d get off the phone with that one, another one would call.

Walker said she’s worried because she hasn’t seen or spoken to her son in months. In fact, authorities say he’s been missing for 6 or 7 months, but the missing persons report was just filed on Monday.

Shakespeare, who’s past includes a criminal record that consists of several arrests and prison time for burglary, battery and failure to pay child support, opted for a lump-sum payment of $16.9 million instead of annual installments.

With his winnings, he bought a Nissan Altima, a Rolex from a pawn shop, a $1 million home in a gated community and talked about starting a foundation for the poor. He insisted the money wouldn’t change him.

Shakespeare’s mother fears that someone after his money may have done harm to her son and now Florida officials, who originally felt the millionaire was somewhere vacationing with the cash, believe she may be right:

“They didn’t wait. They just came right after they found out he won this money,” his mother, Elizabeth Walker, said recently.

She said her son was generous, paying for funerals, lending money to friends starting businesses and even giving a million dollars to a guy known only as “Big Man.”

Not long after he bought the million-dollar home in early 2007, he was approached by a woman named Dee Dee Moore, said family and officials.

Moore — who could not be reached by The Associated Press — said she was interested in writing a book about Shakespeare’s life. She became something of a financial adviser to Shakespeare, who never graduated high school.

Property records show that Moore’s company, American Medical Professionals, bought Shakespeare’s home for $655,000 last January. His mother said the last time she saw him was shortly afterward, around her birthday in February.

The sheriff said the last time anyone saw Shakespeare was in April — but it wasn’t until Nov. 9 that he was reported missing, by a police informant.

And the story gets more bizarre.

According to The Ledger of Lakeland, the 37-year-old Moore contacted reporters atthe newspaper in April, saying Shakespeare was “laying low” because people tried to suck money out of him.

That made sense to Shakespeare’s mother — sort of. “I remember once, talking with me over the phone, he said he might go to Jamaica,” she said.

On Dec. 5, a sobbing Moore told The Ledger that she helped Shakespeare disappear, but now wants him to return because detectives were searching her home and car and looking for blood on her belongings.

One reason he wanted to leave, she said, was a child support case for a child he allegedly fathered after winning the lottery. “Abraham sold me his mess to get a better life,” she told the paper.

She even gave the paper a video that she said she took of Abraham. In the video, he says he is tired of people asking him for money. “They don’t take no for an answer,” he says.

“So where you wanna go to?” Moore asks in the video.

“It don’t matter to me. I’m not a picky person,” Shakespeare replies.

Moore told the paper that she took the video to “protect herself.”

Moore said she filed paperwork to take over five mortgages totaling about $370,000 that had been owed to Shakespeare. She said she sold the loans at a loss to another person. She added that many of the people who borrowed from Shakespeare have refused to pay, and she feels threatened by some of them.

Moore’s past includes a year of probation after she was charged with falsely reporting that she was carjacked and raped in 2001. Officials said she concocted the scheme so her insurance company would reimburse her for the SUV, which she claimed had been stolen.

The woman did not answer several calls placed to a number listed for her in public records. During a recent visit to the home she bought from Shakespeare, a security box rang to a phone number that had been disconnected.

Sheriff’s officials won’t comment on Moore’s involvement in Shakespeare’s life.

The sheriff said that Shakespeare spent the bulk of his lottery winnings. The fact that he didn’t call his mother on Christmas reinforces the theory that Shakespeare is not just hiding, Judd said.

“I hope so much that he is alive somewhere,” said his mother. “And I want people to know, if they ever win the lottery, I hope they know how to handle the people that come after them. They can be dangerous.”

Wow! if I ever hit the number I’m swear I’m changing my phone numbers, address and NAME. I may even go have a lil nip/tuck done. This is insane and the story isn’t even over. I’m almost positive some greedy bastiiiid took this man out.

2 Comments

if i ever hit the numbers, i’m going to:
1 ~ take the annual pay-out… it’s trickier tax-wise, but at least it mitigates the damage i can do to myself and others w/ too much money too quick (see: every lottery winner ever, most NBA players).
2 ~ not tell anyone – ever – that i won and if anyone finds out accidentally, i’ll be sure to say “no” to every person/entity who asks me for money. anything i do will be done anonymously.
3 ~ write a will leaving my shiz to charity.
these three things *SHOULD* help me not end up like this poor bastard.